Geomechanics designs, builds and drills from a cantilever platform for the East London quay wall project.

Submitted by webmaster on Wed, 30/10/2013 - 09:59.

Geomechanics has drilled in some tricky places in its 24 year history so it was easily within our capability to design, build and drill from a cantilever platform for the East London quay wall project. The project required that we drill 6 holes (HQ3 size), with SPT’s, Shelbey’s and Shearvane testing, half a meter out into the sea from the Quay edge.

The cantilever platform was designed by GeoGroup CEO Dave Rossiter and built in our GeoStruct workshop in Johannesburg. The sections were then transported to East London, where the local Geomechanics crews erected the platform in-situ on the quay wall. For each set-up, they made 24 Rhibar and Rockset anchors in the quay wall and filled eight 210litre drums to be used as counter weights for the YWE D90 drill rig.

According to Barry Kruger, Eastern Cape Regional Manager, “The first set up was a little nerve wracking, but once we got the rig on the platform and saw how stable it was, we flew through the project ahead of schedule and without any incidents.”